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Apr 9 Charter School CEO: Avoid Black Kids Becoming the New Cotton Harvested for Their Public School Funding

Tomorrow, the California Assembly Education Committee will hold its first public hearing on two pieces of legislation California Charter School founder Margaret Fortune says are designed to dismantle taxpayer-funded independent public schools in the state.

If passed, 52,800 African-American children enrolled in charter schools across California could be affected.

“We have to be in a situation as Black families to hold everybody accountable for the performance of Black kids,” says Fortune. “We can’t get into a situation where Black kids are the new cotton and we’re harvesting them for their public school funding.”

Fortune says the state’s traditional public schools have a record of failing Black kids. And when organizations like the California Teachers Association fight the existence of charter schools, they are basically saying, “We can’t teach Black kids and we will not let anybody else.”

In May 2019, British artist Chemical X’s art installation “Skid Rodeo Drive” highlighted the economic disparities in Los Angeles, where scores of homeless people live in tent communities not far from luxe enclaves like the famed Rodeo Drive. In the L.A. suburb of Pacoima, Calif., dozens of predominantly African American people are living in tents under the Ronald Reagan Freeway.Photo: Ari Perilstein (Getty Images for Chemical X)